Lance Armstrong Rides Again

By JACKIE WILLIS

July 08, 2013

Lance Armstrong is getting back on the bike following his shocking doping confession earlier this year.

Since admitting to Oprah Winfrey in January that he did in fact use performance enhancing drugs during his Tour de France wins, the 41-year-old cyclist announced this weekend that he will be participating in the Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa this July. "We are open to anyone that wants to come ride RAGBRAI," race director T.J. Juskiewicz told The Des Moines Register newspaper.

Armstrong said of his return to cycling, "I'm well aware my presence is not an easy topic, and so I encourage people if they want to give a high-five, great. If you want to shoot me the bird, that's OK too ...I'm a big boy, and so I made the bed, I get to sleep in it."

Adding of his comeback, "It's just me wanting to go ride my bike with what in the past has been a friendly group of people that share the same interests.. ...[I'm] just a dude like everybody who likes to ride bikes and likes to drink beer and has made his fair share of mistakes -- and that's that"

Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles after it was ruled by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that he did fact do drugs. "I'm committed to the process and that's probably as much as I would and could say about it. That's a tricky area there … unless you have $135 million you want to let me borrow, or have?" he said of the millions of dollars in liabilities he faces in lawsuits following his doping confession.

"I view this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times," Armstrong told the paper. "I know the truth. The truth isn't what was out there. The truth isn't what I said ,,,I'm a flawed character, as I well know. All the fault and all the blame here falls on me."

So, why did he finally decide to fess up? "I saw my son defending me and saying, 'That's not true. What you're saying about my dad is not true.' That's when I knew I had to tell him."